Is U.S. stuck in Internet's slow lane?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: November 1, 2007 1:09:15 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Is U.S. stuck in Internet's slow lane?

[Note:  This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis.  DLH]

Is U.S. stuck in Internet's slow lane?
'We're now in the middle of the pack of developed countries' says expert
By Peter Svensson
The Associated Press
updated 5:54 p.m. PT, Tues., Oct. 30, 2007
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21549824/>
NEW YORK - The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on  
the Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and  
cheaper broadband connections, and more of their population connected  
to them.

What's less clear is how badly the country that gave birth to the  
Internet is doing, and whether the government needs to step in and do  
something about it. The Bush administration has tried to foster  
broadband adoption with a hands-off approach. If that's seen as a  
failure by the next administration, the policy may change.

In a move to get a clearer picture of where the U.S. stands, the House  
Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that  
would develop an annual inventory of existing broadband services —  
including the types, advertised speeds and actual number of  
subscribers — available to households and businesses across the nation.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is intended to  
provide policy makers with improved data so they can better use grants  
and subsidies to target areas lacking high-speed Internet access. He  
said in a statement last week that promoting broadband would help spur  
job growth, access to health care and education and promote innovation  
among other benefits.

The inventory wouldn't cover other countries, but a cursory look shows  
the U.S. lagging behind at least some of them. In South Korea, for  
instance, the average apartment can get an Internet connection that's  
15 times faster than a typical U.S. connection. In Paris, a "triple  
play" of TV, phone and broadband service costs less than half of what  
it does in the U.S.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — a 30- 
member club of nations — compiles the most often cited international  
comparison. It puts the U.S. at 15th place for broadband lines per  
person in 2006, down from No. 4 in 2001.

The OECD numbers have been vigorously attacked by anti-regulation  
think tanks for making the U.S. look exceedingly bad. They point out  
that the OECD is not very open about how it compiles the data. It  
doesn't count people who have access to the Internet at work, or  
students who have access in their dorms.

"We would never base other kinds of policy on that kind of data," said  
Scott Wallsten, director of communications policy studies at the  
Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank that favors deregulation  
over government intervention.

But the OECD numbers are in line with other international measures.  
Figures from the British research firm Point-Topic Ltd. put the U.S.,  
with 55 percent of its households connected, in 17th place for  
adoption rates at the end of June (excluding some very small countries  
and territories like Macau and Hong Kong).

[snip]

-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com